#discomforts in a married state

[hang-on-lil-tomato]

[temporal-discounting]

It's easy to forget how utterly unhinged Stede is, but as I was watching Discomfort in a Married State the other day, this line jumped out at me: "I should take a leaf out of your book. Maybe I'd live a little longer."

Stede is under no illusion that he has chosen to do something incredibly dangerous. He didn't become a pirate with the expectation of living a long life of noteriety. He wanted to do something exciting - something diametrically opposed to the life he was forced into, even if it killed him (and knowing it likely would).

Just... What a character. No wonder Ed was so deeply fascinated by him

[ofmd-ann]

Bonus ✨:

[arsenicflame]

happy "our marriage is never gonna recover from this" day

[poison-into-positivity]

"i'm going to put on ofmd in the background while i do the dishes/cook/clean my apartment" FOOL!!!!! that is the DEVIL talking! you will inevitably be absolutely transfixed by it and be unable to do anything other than sit mesmerized in front of the screen, no matter how many times you've seen it. and you can't do anything about it

[quaintlyfig]

This is my favorite episode of Our Flag Means Death.

I don't even usually have favorites of anythings - colors, songs, etc - but while the whole show has my whole heart, there is something extra, extra special about watching them instantaneously become best friends, their souls already intertwined before either of them even realize that's what's happened. The tremendous, unmitigated, unselfconscious, spontaneous, deeply honest joy they feel around each other before they even know each other. My heart can barely handle how happy they make me and all the things they've taught me about living.

So happy September the 1st, friends! A day magic was born, a day love burst into the universe in a form it had never seen before, a day that reshaped my own heart, reminded me that there is such unbelievable beauty in the world, and that wrote itself on me in permanent ink.

🔥🥰💞🏴‍☠️

Image from ofmdframes on twitter 💖

[bluishorange]

something I’ll never get over is the fact that Ed and Stede know each other for like ten minutes and then they just. swap clothes. two grown men, pirates, PUT ON EACH OTHER’S CLOTHES and then run around the ship pretending to be each other.

and then Ed wears Stede’s cravat for the whole rest of the season.

it’s so romantic.

[thehappyfeminist-22]

I realized a while ago that the first episode of OFMD starts on June 3rd (as Lucius says when he's reading Stede's journal in Act of Grace) and we know that Discomfort in a Married State happens on September 1st, so according to the headstone from the same episode, between episodes 1 and 4, Stede has a birthday! I wonder how they celebrated or if he ever even told any of the crew because his birthday was never a big deal to anyone before? 😭

[temporal-discounting]

This post by @celluloidbroomcloset got me thinking about how safe Stede feels with Ed pretty much from the get go.

Just a few episodes prior, we see Stede mocked and ridiculed by his childhood bully for the extravagance of his ship - and his cabin in particular. A very understandable response to that would be to make himself small, to downplay the space, to try to deflect attention elsewhere.

And yet, from the moment that Ed rubs that cashmere so reverently against his cheek, Stede senses he is in the presence of someone who won't mock and belittle him. He feels safe enough to reveal the one part of the ship that he hasn't shown to anyone else. It's such a brave thing to do

And of course, Stede makes the right call. Ed doesn't laugh at him, doesn't call him ridiculous. He's blown away by it - he's blown away by Stede.

They see each other and get each other so early on. It's just such a beautiful moment

[bi-buckrights]

“His friends felt he [Bonnet] suffered from “a disorder in his mind, which had been but too visible in him for some time” and which was supposedly caused by “discomforts he found in a married state.””

- The Republic of Pirates: Being the True and Surprising Story of the Caribbean Pirates and the Man Who Brought Them Down, Colin Woodard

For all you OFMD fans this is a real life quote about Stede Bonnet I found while researching my pirate au

[crimson-and-clover-1717]

Ed: Izzy, Izzy, Izzy… Look out there. Those clouds. Do they look like Frankfurters to you?

Izzy: They look like clouds, Boss? Can we just focus on…?

Ed: Yes, yes, they look like clouds because they are indeed clouds, but if you just put some fucking imagination into it, man!

Izzy: [long pause] I suppose they look like sausages…

Ed: Frankfurters, yes! Exactly. It’s like pulling teeth with you sometimes, man.

Izzy has worked with Ed for years and still doesn’t understand his mind works best in simile or metaphor; that he needs a certain level of creative social interaction to keep him sane, that the bouncing of an idea helps consolidate things in Ed’s mind.

Yet we see Ed give Izzy every opportunity to interact. Ed already knows the answer really, and the significance. He’s trying to build rapport, include Izzy; but also feel this is a team effort, that Ed’s not carrying the safety of everyone alone. He’s trying quite naturally to share the load with his First Mate.

Unfortunately, Ed’s met with barely-veiled disdain - ‘They look like clouds, Boss.’ Even if Izzy can’t understand what’s being asked of him, he could ask questions for clarification, or even, I dunno, just agree and trust Ed’s judgement. But he’s not bothered because he wants to focus on his plan, the one that’s better than his boss’s who he says rather contrarily, is ‘the most brilliant sailor [he’s] ever met.’

We hear Ed’s frustration, and the key word ‘imagination’ clarifies much of the issue. Izzy has none, or doesn’t care to cultivate any. Imagination isn’t for real men. Having a plan involving firing canons at a superior vessel is the done thing, apparently.

When Izzy does finally give in to his boss’s Very Silly Game™, I find the answer irritating. He uses ‘sausages’ instead of ‘Frankfurters’. It’s a way of agreeing whilst not agreeing. He’s diminishing Ed’s observation. He won’t use Ed’s word, his more imaginative and precise word, a very particular type of sausage. Izzy’s being blasé, truculent, even. Imagine an AU: ‘Does that look like a car to you?’ / ‘I suppose… it looks… like a vehicle.’ It’s the response of an adolescent. The use of ‘suppose’ has tone as well. Ed’s response reveals years of frustration. ‘Pulling teeth’ is being kind. Feeling you want to bang your (or Izzy’s) head against a wall is a more appropriate response.

— -

Ed: What’s that painting? What is it? A grain tower?

Stede: Oh, it’s a lighthouse. I should’ve been one for my family. And guided them.

Ed: Hmmm… well, technically, you’re supposed to avoid lighthouses, so you don’t crack up on the rocks.

Stede: I never really thought about it that way.

Ed: Hmm… no one does.

Together: We need to be a lighthouse!

I still don’t know what to make of Ed who sees lighthouses possibly daily, and thinks he’s viewing a picture of a grain tower. But it reinforces abstract thought and lateral thinking. Ed often doesn’t see what is there; he sees beyond, creative alternatives, the non-obvious answer.

Stede could’ve given a taciturn response, ‘Oh, it’s a lighthouse.’ If he’d stopped there, they would’ve all died, probably. But because Stede is open and conversational, he goes on to explain why he has that picture, and the symbolic importance of it.

This then allows Ed again, to offer an alternative interpretation - you’re technically supposed to avoid lighthouses. But Ed only gets there through the openness of the interaction, the to-ing and fro-ing.

And Stede’s reaction is important also. He doesn’t dig his heels into a rigid interpretation of what a lighthouse represents. He doesn’t say, ‘I suppose’ or ‘Why are we talking about this when we’re all about to die.’ He says, with genuine surprise and curiosity ‘I never really thought about it that way.’ Stede has an adaptable mind. One willing to learn and see things from a different perspective even in the worst moments. Which is why what happens next happens.

The joint ‘We need to be lighthouse!’ reveals a lot about where these two are already heading. The camerawork is phenomenal, moving between the pair, but also blurring background and foreground, bringing Ed, then Stede into focus. They have an already-developing symbiotic relationship. Furthermore, Stede, the new kid on the block, the one who’s apparently a bit of an imbecile, comes up with the plan the same moment as master-strategist Blackbeard. And that means something. That means a lot actually.

It’s very clear what we are meant to understand about the characters. The juxtaposition of Ed and Izzy’s relationship to that of Ed and Stede’s shows how starved of an intellectual and creative equal Ed has been for years… possibly since forever. They come up with a plan that’s equal parts ridiculous and sublime - a little bit like them, really. And it works! - because of respectful reciprocal conversation. The outcome will always be one of my favourite scenes.

[handlebarstiedtothestars]

So I made a real life friend for the first time in YEARS and of course told him he HAS to watch OFMD. Last I’d talked to him, he wasn’t totally sold yet but he was going to at least watch up to episode 4.

Cut to today in his yoga class, he’s winding us down for the guided meditation. Normally he sets us up in a forest or a desert oasis or something. Today it started with just a white dot of light, and as you breathe in it gets brighter, almost blinding, and as you breathe out it fades to nothing.

My OFMD brain rot instantly goes “LIGHTHOUSE!?!” and I start internally berating myself for having the OFMD brain rot and why can’t I think of anything else and just have a nice calming meditation, no my brain has to go “GAY PIRATES!!!!!” every 15 seconds.

And then he goes

“And you smell the salt in the air, and hear the waves, and you realise……the light……is a lighthouse.”

Reader, I had to bite my tongue to stop myself cackling 🤣

I’ve converted another one 🏴‍☠️🩷

[dollsome-does-tumblr]

i do gotta admit, the wwdits finale has left me with a yucky lingering sadness all day. i wanted warmer warm 'n fuzzies than this, somehow! like, deranged warm ‘n fuzzies, but warm ‘n fuzzies still!

[confusedraven1]

season one’s “i’m not a fucking mermaid” (im just a person, im just like everyone else) /pos

VS

season two’s “you’re not a fucking mermaid” (you’re just a person, you’re just like everyone else) /neg

[carrymelikeimcute]

Thinking about 1x04 and the way it absolutely goes to TOWN on what being a captain is, and how Ed, Izzy and Stede all struggle with it, and each other.

This is a great episode for watching Izzy spiral - he tries to force Ed to stop mucking about and do some captaining (failing to realise that Ed has a plan, he just isn't explaining it to him).

After this lack of input, Izzy is apparently desperate enough to ask STEDE - demanding information about the ship from him (which Stede obviously doesn't have) and to come up with his own 'plan' which is 'everyone either fights or they die' - which is as blunt and simplistic as it gets. But it's also the polar opposite of Stede's 'we talk to them' - neither plan is going to work, but for wildly different reasons.

BUT then, when Ed appears and Lucius is giving the countdown, Izzy seems to be learning just as much as Stede is, what it MEANS to be a captain. To have this pressure on you, this responsibility. Izzy is crumbling under only a sliver of it already, as is Stede.

When Ed says the line 'The crew's going to die, you're gonna lose all your men and it's all gonna be your fault - all the men who trusted you...' The shot is of Izzy looking at Ed.

Earlier in the episode, we see Ed brush off Izzy notifying him of the losses they took in the skirmish with the Spanish. I see this moment as Izzy realising that Ed does care, but he cannot allow himself to stop, even for a moment, to let that emotion in - because he needs to be their captain, all the time.

When Black Pete arrives to say that Blackbeard is a genius - Izzy is confused. Then, when the secret 'fog' plan appears to come to fruition, Izzy is annoyed - seemingly with himself, for his own lack of faith, for not listening and for making rash decisions, like threatening to resign. It's clear (in my view) that he WANTS the plan to work though - he doesn't want to die and he wants his captain to be RIGHT.

But, while everyone else is happy and relieved, Izzy looks if anything, hurt - because he's been left in the dark. He's first mate and he has been excluded from the plan - and I'm not sure if this is because he didn't go along with the 'sausage clouds' thing earlier, or if Ed was always going to keep it from him, but either way it shows that they aren't communicating well, as a unit.

And when Ed's plan is shown to have the fatal flaw of it being a leap year, Izzy looks crestfallen, because not only is he now probably going to die, he's also seeing Blackbeard - THE Blackbeard - stumble. (And in a stumble he could have avoided earlier if they'd been listening to each other). It's sort of embarrassed and broken, that look, like he's seeing this human failing for the first time.

Interestingly, Stede asks if leap years 'change things much' highlighting a key difference between him and Izzy - Stede has little nautical experience, Izzy has a lot - but Stede has the imagination to come up with a plan like the lighthouse, and Izzy, even with his knowledge, doesn't have the creativity to use it effectively. But, as with the fog plan - creativity also needs pragmatism.

During the exchange between Lucius/Frenchie, Izzy is centred between them, looking down/into nothing, clearly aware that 1. he is going to die and 2. Ed is just waiting to die. And While Stede is going after Ed, Izzy it appears, cannot. He either doesn't know what to do to get Ed through this, or can't bring himself to try.

The lighthouse fuckery works - showing Stede and Ed think along similar lines. Izzy is noteably absent from the entire thing. Where he is/what he's doing remains a mystery. (From what we see of him in S2, I theorise he's probably sitting somewhere dark and staring at a wall, having it out with himself, but that's just me).

Finally, we get the last scene with Ed/Izzy. And as soon as Ed approaches, Izzy apologises - which again, I consider to be due to introspection during the fuckery but w/e - Izzy actively refutes what he said by saying he doesn't think it, but it's not clear if he thought it when he said it, and has changed his mind, or never thought it to begin with. Ed even sort of meets him halfway by saying he was 'right' - about what we have no idea. Possibly just that they needed a plan, and he needed to share that plan sooner.

Ed offers Izzy the captaincy, despite the previous day showing that he is absolutely NOT captain material - which feels to me like a way to get Izzy to stay. To buy some time and keep things as they are. Ed is trying to keep all his plates spinning while he works out wtf he wants to do.

Lastly, Izzy calls after him to reassure Ed that he's 'still got it' but it feels...conciliatory. Much like the offer of a captaincy, it's a bit of flattery, a balm for a wound - I think he wants to mean it, but he's still not 100% sure. And Ed gives him a confident smile and turns away before letting it drop - which is when we see Izzy's answering smile, like he's now convinced that Ed is still Blackbeard, he's still got what it takes - but Ed's the one doubting himself now, more than ever, but he looks...slightly resigned to me? Like he's at least at this point, trying to convince himself that he really means it when he lays out his plan.

This episode man, it's just...the relationships between Stede, Ed and their respective 'marriages' is...a lot to pack into this one ep.

[m-y--p-a-s-s-i-o-n-s]

'Discomfort in a married state' isn't just about Stede....it's about Ed as Blackbeard too...